Tax group slams 'non-courses'

2:27am Tuesday 28th August 2007

Universities have defended degrees labelled 'non-courses' by a group campaigning for lower taxes.

The Taxpayers' Alliance has called for subjects like equine sports performance and adventure education - which are both run at universities in Sussex - to be abolished to save public money being spent on providing them.

In a report the group said £40 million was spent each year in Britain providing courses it identified as unnecessary.

Peter Cuthbertson, who wrote the report, said: "Political priorities have led to a never-ending drive to increase the number of students in university.

"As a result, there has been a massive expansion of nondegrees' of little or no academic merit."

Students can apply to the University of Chichester to join a two-year adventure education degree. In its prospectus the university said of the course: "Over two years you will be introduced to the theory of adventure."

At the University of Brighton, courses are available in computer game design, equine sports performance, environmental hazards and visual culture - the study of adverts, films and other media.

A university spokeswoman said the courses each had their own academic merits and lead to specific careers.

The national overseeing body, Universities UK, said the alliance's report was a "rag bag of prejudices" which failed to understand developments in higher education.

It said many of the courses were over-subscribed and their graduates were in demand.

The alliance suggested students on these courses could learn their skills just as well in on-the-job training, reducing the amount spent by taxpayers.

Mr Cuthbertson said: "If non-courses' were abolished, all the other students could save more than £100 on their tuition fees or buy an extra pint of beer a week."

Universities UK replied: "Had they done a little more research, they would have found that these so-called noncourses' are in fact based on demand from employers and developed in association with them.

"Graduates on these courses are in demand from employers who are looking for people with specific skills alongside the general skills acquired during a degree such as critical thinking, teamwork, time management and IT skills - a point lost on the authors of this rag-bag of prejudices and outdated assumptions.

"Students know this - which is why these courses are often over-subscribed and have high employability rates.

"This is academic snobbery, as predictable as it is unfounded."

A University of Brighton spokeswoman said: "We are one of the leading vocational and professional universities in the UK.

"We work closely with employers across a broad range of sectors, from law and agriculture to environmental assessment and medicine, to continually inform developments in the portfolio of courses offered at the university.

"Many of these courses are training students in specialist skills and these graduates are in high demand from employers who are looking for graduates with specific skills.

"More than 93 per cent of our graduates will be in jobs or continuing with their education within six months of graduating."

The University of Chichester was unavailable for comment.

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